Forbidden City in Beijing

It is the biggest palace complex in the world. It is so big that it is called “city” in Chinese. This is the so-called Forbidden City, 紫禁城（zǐ jìn chéng), which literally means “purple forbidden city”, located in the city of Beijing, which was the Chinese imperial palace for almost 500 years. It was a forbidden city because no one was allowed to enter or leave without the emperor’s permission.

Built in 1406 to 1420, it covers 720,000m2 (7,800,000 sq ft) with 980 buildings. People say there are 9,999 rooms, but this well-cited number might not reflect the actual number of rooms. The actual number should be a bit lower, but for sure more than 8,800. When you visit forbidden city, the tour guide would tell you that if a person moves to a different room in forbidden city every single day since he was born, he would become 20 years old without having stayed in all the rooms!

There are lots of stories and historical treasure hidden in this large palace. I am going to share an excellent documentary with you.